Big Brother Effect
by nightshade938
Summary: After their latest battle for survival, Klaus gets injured and Damon takes care of him.


_**BIG BROTHER EFFECT**_

_**Disclaimer: The characters of the vampire diaries belong to L.J Smith and the C.W.**_

* * *

The fight had gone well. There was no reason it shouldn't have. With three originals, one of whom was hybrid, it had been relatively easy to dispatch of the newest threat. It was funny how new threats kept arising. You would think they would have learnt their lesson by now. Mystic Falls was their home. Granted they could stay only a few years at a time because of their aging problem but it was still their home and they would defend it with their lives against anybody and anything that tries to take it from them. _Just ask the travellers._

Everything had gone according to plan until Caroline had nearly been staked. Klaus had thrown himself in front of her and gotten the stake instead. Being an original he hadn't died and nothing would have been made of it except maybe some teasing about dying for the woman you love, but them being them, it hadn't been that easy. And that brought them to the events unfolding now.

Caroline and Tyler helped Klaus into the living room and onto the couch just as Jeremy and Matt came bounding down the stairs. They took in the sight of the original who looked paler than usual and seemed to clutch at his chest.

"What happened" Jeremy asked

Caroline answer was interrupted by the sound of arguing from outside. The sight of Damon dragging Stefan into the room answered Matt's unasked question about who was arguing. He rolled his eyes when he heard Stefan argue that he was fine and immediately holding on to his brother for balance as a wave of dizziness washed over him. Typical Stefan. he would argue that he was fine even if his heart was hanging out of his chest by a thread. What he was sure would have been a sarcastic retort from Damon was interrupted by a piercing scream. Everyone in the room, which now included Alaric, Bonnie, Elena and Enzo, turned to look at the source of that horrible sound.

"My God" Bo whispered

"Make it stop. P-please. It hurts" Klaus moaned.

Damon rushed to the couch. "The stake broke and left a piece in him. It won't kill him as he's an original but I'm sure it's very painful. We have to get it out". That was easier said than done. Klaus was moving around so much and he was so strong it was difficult to pin him down. Damon grunted at the effort. "Ric, it would be nice to use that original strength of yours and help me hold him down instead of just standing there don't you think?"

"Oh….. Uhh…. Yeah sure" Alaric said as he moved to hold Klaus shoulders.

He screamed and flailed some more when Damon touched the wound on his chest. "S-stop. It hurts. It bloody hurts. M-make it go away, p-please. Make the pain go away" he screamed as Damon hand dug into the wound in an attempt to pull out the stake.

"He's moving too much" Damon muttered. He paused and looked over at the people in the room and started barking out orders. "Jeremy, get me some towels and a bowl of water. I need to clean the blood off to see what I'm doing. Blondie and wolf boy, hold his legs. Elena, get some tongs. Busboy, blood bags. Enzo, help Stefan upstairs to bed. Clean him up first though. Don't forget he doesn't heal like the rest of us"

"Clean me up? Bed? Damon, I'm not a child. I don't need to be cleaned up and sent to bed. I want to help" Stefan said indignantly

Damon rolled his eyes. "You almost fell over the last time you attempted to stand and like I said you don't heal normally. And Stefan, sei diciassette anni. Ancora un bambino" (**You're seventeen. Still a child)**

Enzo averted what would have been a full out argument as he grabbed Stefan's arm and steered him towards the stairs. If S was being true to himself, he would agree with Damon. He was dizzy and his vision was hazy and his entire body ached. But he wouldn't give Damon the satisfaction of knowing that he was right. Throwing a scowl in Damon's direction, he shrugged off Enzo's arm and stomped up the stairs.

"Yeah" Damon muttered "Definitely a child". He turned and took the water and towel from Jeremy. He wiped the blood off and got a good look at the wound. "It's very close to his heart. Lucky the only thing that can kill him is a white oak stake. It shouldn't hurt like this though. It's an ordinary stake. Something's wrong".

"One of the stakes scratched me. It was doused in vervain" Caroline said

Damon looked thoughtful for a moment. "But Klaus is an original. He can shake off the vervain pretty fast. Unless….." he looked at Tyler. "Hey wolfie, come here. Give me your hand" he took Tyler's hand and pressed it to the wound on Klaus' chest. Klaus howled and Tyler hissed as he drew his hand back quickly. Damon cursed "Sly bastards. They doused the stakes in vervain and wolfs bane. Pretty clever though. Whoever gets staked will be weakened, be it vampire or werewolf. But Klaus here is a hybrid and he feels both poisons coursing through his body. No wonder he's in so much pain". He grabbed the tongs. "I'm going to pull it out now. This is going to hurt. A lot. But I'll be quick, ok". He looked up. "Someone talk to him. Keep him distracted from the pain"

Bonnie nodded and knelt beside his head. "It's going to be okay. You'll be fine. Just calm down. It'll be over soon" she soothed. She nodded to Damon to go ahead with the extraction.

Damon tried to be gentle. He really did. But there was no gentle way to remove a piece of wood stuck in someone's chest. After Caroline was thrown to the floor a second time due to Klaus' kicking, he called for a break.

"This isn't working. He needs to be still for me to take out the stake". He glanced down at the crying original. Both of them were drenched in sweat, though for different reasons. He growled frustratingly. He didn't know what else to do. _If this was Stefan…_

_Stefan_

He had an idea.

"Ric, move out of the way"

"What! Why?"

"Just move"

He settled himself behind Klaus and cradled his upper body in his arms. He wiped off the sweat and tears and started talking to him softly. "It's ok. You'll be fine. Just relax for me, ok. The pain will go away soon. Good. Calm down for me"

The others looked on astonished as Klaus started to calm down. Damon motioned for the tongs ad Elena handed them over. He nodded to them "Give us some space". He looked at Klaus. He was still crying but it was not the gut wrenching sobs of earlier. He settled him more comfortably against his chest and, signalling to Caroline and Tyler to hold his legs, dug the tongs into the wound.

Damon didn't think he had heard someone scream so loudly before. Klaus' screams pierced his ears and he nearly stopped what he was doing. But the fact that if he stopped, he couldn't get him to be compliant enough for him to try again prevented him from stopping. He kept whispering assurances into Klaus' ear as he writhed on the couch. _Where was Elijah when you needed him, _a thought popped in the back of Damon's mind? Elijah had stayed behind to get rid of the bodies' and clean up the mess they created. _Someone should call him, _Damon thought.

There was a wet popping sound as Damon finally succeeded in pulling the stake out. Klaus slumped into his arms from exhaustion. Damon dropped the bloody tongs and grabbed a blood bag. He pried it open with his teeth and held it to Klaus' mouth.

"Shhh. It's over. It's over" he soothed. "Drink this. Slowly. That's good. The pain will go away soon. Good" Damon coaxed until half the blood bag was emptied. Then Klaus turned away. Damon checked the wound. The blood had helped. It had closed considerably. That will have to do for now as Klaus has refused to drink any more.

"We have to get him to his room" Damon said as he swept sweat soaked hair away from Klaus' face. Elijah had decided some time ago that they all have places to sleep in all of their houses should something happen and they had to crash at the nearest place. So they all had rooms in Matt's house, Elena's house, Caroline's place, the original mansion and Tyler's house. Enzo stayed at the boarding house with the brothers. At the time they had laughed and told Elijah how ridiculous he sounded. But as time went on and they had to fight on a regular basis for their survival, it turned out to be a great idea. Whenever they had to stay over at the Salvatore house, which had eight rooms, Damon and Stefan shared Damon's room. Matt and Tyler took Stefan's room, Klaus and Elijah each had one of the guest rooms, Jeremy slept with Ric and Enzo kept his room to himself. The girls bundled themselves into one room. That left a room to spare. Jeremy argued that he wanted that room but Alaric said he wanted him close so it was easier to keep an eye on him. Of course Jeremy had pouted but Alaric had made up his mind.

Ric made a move to take Klaus from Damon but was interrupted when someone else volunteered.

"I'll take him" Elijah said. No one had noticed him come in. he walked over to the couch and picked his little brother up. After a whispered thank you in Damon's direction, he blurred up the stairs with Klaus.

* * *

Later that night as Damon climbed into bed and lay next to his little brother, Stefan asked him,

"Damon?"

"Hmmm"

"Can I ask you something?"

"If I answer, would you go to sleep?"

"Mmhmm"

"What is it?"

"What you did for Klaus today, how did you know it was gonna work? That he would listen to you?"

Damon chuckled. "Because I'm a big brother, Stefan. It's what we do. Klaus may be older than me by a few months or maybe a year-he's only lived longer-but he's Elijah's little brother. This is what Elijah would have done had he been there. It is the big brother effect. It works all the time". He smiled as he remembered that imagining Stefan in Klaus' position had given him the motivation to do what he did. "Stefan?"

All the response he got was soft snores. Stefan was asleep.

* * *

_I know Klaus may have probably gone through more pain than this before. But the idea just came and I wrote it. Tell me what you think_


End file.
